So, I have written a couple of “watching order guides” – sometimes franchises have so much material it becomes a mission to figure out what the canon is, and the best order to read things. Star Wars is its own beast, spanning movies, TV shows, books, comics and more over several decades.
I want to, at some point, try to read through all the canon Star Wars books, so I’ve done some research into…how to even begin to do that. This is what I’ve come up with – but any input would be fantastic!
Chronological Order
THE HIGH REPUBLIC ERA
- Ronin: A Visions Novel By Emma Mieko Candon
- The High Republic: Light of the Jedi By Charles Soule
- The High Republic: Into the Dark By Claudia Gray
- The High Republic: The Rising Storm By Cavan Scott
- The High Republic: Out Of The Shadows By Justina Ireland
- The High Republic: Tempest Runner By Cavan Scott
- The High Republic: The Fallen Star By Claudia Gray
- The High Republic: Midnight Horizon By Daniel Jose Older
THE FALL OF THE JEDI ERA
*The prequel trilogy and The Clone Wars can be watched here.
- Master & Apprentice By Claudia Gray
- Queen’s Peril By E. K. Johnston
- Queen’s Shadow By E. K. Johnston
- Dooku: Jedi Lost By Cavan Scott
- The Clone Wars Anthology: Stories of Light and Dark By Various Authors
- Dark Disciple By Christie Golden
- Thrawn: Ascendancy: Chaos Rising By Timothy Zahn
THE REIGN OF THE EMPIRE ERA
- Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good By Timothy Zahn
- Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil By Timothy Zahn
- Ahsoka By E.K. Johnston
- Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel By James Luceno
- Lords of the Sith By Paul S. Kemp
- Tarkin By James Luceno
- Most Wanted By Rae Carson
- A New Dawn By John Jackson Miller
- Solo: A Star Wars Story: Expanded Edition By Mur Lafferty
*Solo and the Ben Kenobi movie can be watched here.
THE AGE OF THE REBELLION ERA
*Andor, Rogue One, and the original trilogy can be watched here.
- Leia: Princess of Alderaan By Claudia Gray
- Thrawn By Timothy Zahn
- Thrawn: Alliances By Timothy Zahn
- Thrawn: Treason By Timothy Zahn
- Guardians of the Whills By Greg Rucka
- Rebel Rising By Beth Revis
- Rogue One By Alexander Freed
- From A Certain Point of View By Various Authors
- Battlefront II: Inferno Squad By Christie Golden
- Smuggler’s Run: A Han Solo & Chewbacca Adventure By Greg Rucka
- Heir to the Jedi By Kevin Hearne
- The Weapon of a Jedi: A Luke Skywalker Adventure By Jason Fry
- Doctor Aphra: An Audiobook Original By Sarah Kuhn
- From A Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back By Various Authors
- Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure By Cecil Castellucci and Jason Fry
- Battlefront: Twilight Company By Alexander Freed
THE NEW REPUBLIC ERA
- Alphabet Squadron By Alexander Freed
- Aftermath By Chuck Wendig
- Alphabet Squadron: Shadow Fall By Alexander Freed
- Aftermath: Life Debt By Chuck Wendig
- Aftermath: Empire’s End By Chuck Wendig
- Alphabet Squadron: Victory’s Price By Alexander Freed
- Lost Stars By Claudia Gray
- Last Shot By Daniel José Older
- Poe Dameron: Free Fall By Alex Segura
- Shadow of the Sith By Adam Christopher
- Bloodline By Claudia Gray
RISE OF THE FIRST ORDER ERA
*The sequel trilogy, Boba Fett and The Mandalorian can be watched here.
- Force Collector By Kevin Shinick
- Phasma By Delilah S. Dawson
- Tales from a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Aliens By Landry Q. Walker
- Before the Awakening By Greg Rucka
- The Legends of Luke Skywalker By Ken Liu
- Canto Bight By Jackson Miller, Saladin Ahmed, Rae Carson, and Mira Grant
- Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens By Alan Dean Foster
- Cobalt Squadron By Elizabeth Wein
- Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition By Jason Fry
- Resistance Reborn By Rebecca Roanhorse
- Spark of the Resistance By Justina Ireland
- Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire By Delilah S. Dawson
- Galaxy’s Edge: A Crash of Fate By Zoraida Córdova
- Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker – Expanded Edition By Rae Carson
RiverMoose-Reads 
WOW. This is impressive research! Once upon a time, I used to be on top of all things Star Wars. I had read a large portion of the old Expanded Universe novels and comics, too, before the Prequels came out and even some after. So then I began reading all the new ones once Disney bought Lucasfilm and the Disney Canon began. But then it got to be too much and, for better or worse, I’ve since fallen behind.
Of the twenty-six or so Disney Canon novels I’ve read, my favorites were the Prequel Era ones – the Padmé Amidala trilogy by E.K. Johnston, ‘Master and Apprentice’ by Claudia Grey, and ‘Dooku: Jedi Lost,’ by Cavan Scott. But I think my all time favorite novel from this canon, of those I read of course, would be Christie Golden’s ‘Dark Disciple.’ It’s a Clone Wars novel that was originally intended to be an arc on the show. It’s brilliant! I used it in a Star Wars class I taught, too.
I used to be able to talk as much about Star Wars as I do Doctor Who or Marvel or DC comics and the like. But I sort of slipped and now it all feels very unwieldy to me. So I wish you luck in your adventure! And I hope you blog about it here and there as you go ;D. I’d love to live vicariously through you! And maybe – maybe, someday in the future – I can take a little inspiration from you and give it a go again myself.
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As I get around to reading I will definitely be posting reviews here! And you’ve given me an idea – maybe some research on all the canon Doctor Who books? That would be so many to try to read.
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It is a dangerously long rabbit hole to head down XD. But I have no regrets! I’ve tracked down all the novels from the Ninth through the Thirteenth Doctors and am doing my best to get the novels for the Classic Doctors as I watch them so I’m up to the Fourth Doctor there. Apparently there are dozens and dozens about the Seventh and Eighth as Doctor Who was off the air then and they kept the stories going there, like they did with the EU for Star Wars.
Should you ever want to dive in and if you’d like a handy Word document that already has all the novels on it, just let me know. I’d be happy to email mine to you! It will require lots of used bookstore and eBay hunting though as Doctor Who novels aren’t always in circulation. BBC Books doesn’t have the money Lucasfilm and now Disney does.
I just read ‘Doctor Who: Ruby’s Curse – A River Song/Melody Malone Mystery’ and it was written by Alex Kingston! It was VERY timey-wimey at parts but I really, really liked it. My fingers are crossed she writes more River Song stories.
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Oh that Ruby’s Curse book sounds fantastic! And yeah between novels and audio adventures there are hundreds of Doctor Who stories. The hunting is part of the fun!
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Right?? Half the reason I love road trips is looking for used book and/or comic stores when I randomly pull off someplace to find something to eat or to get a hotel. Of course then you need to add like an extra day for browsing XD. But it’s worth it!
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